To watchman or not August 20, 2022 03:09PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 20, 2022 03:52PM |
Admin Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 5,386 |
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You will stay in the hospital overnight. You will take a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) and aspirin (81-100mg) each day following your procedure until the 45 day visit.
If the 45 day TEE shows that the Device has closed the LAA and there is no clot on the Device, you can stop taking anticoagulation. You will remain on aspirin (81-100mg) and clopidogrel (75mg) until 6-months, after which you will be on aspirin alone.
If there is blood flow around the WATCHMAN FLX implant into your LAA or if there is a clot on your Device, you will continue anticoagulation and aspirin until the TEE is repeated at 6 months or until there is little or no blood flow around the Device implant into your LAA or the clot has dissolved. At the 6-month TEE, if there is a Device seal and no clot is present you will stop taking anticoagulation and remain on aspirin alone.
Re: To watchman or not August 20, 2022 04:41PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 20, 2022 08:48PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 20, 2022 08:50PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 20, 2022 10:48PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 21, 2022 03:30AM |
Admin Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 5,386 |
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jasams
While I don’t understand your reasoning for taking eliquis if a watchman puts you at the same risk as someone who never had afib, I respect your decision.
Re: To watchman or not August 21, 2022 05:54PM |
Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 33 |
Re: To watchman or not August 21, 2022 06:39PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 21, 2022 07:33PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 21, 2022 10:54PM |
Admin Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 5,386 |
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jasams
Thanks Carey, So I guess put another way, you feel that a watchman plus OAC is better than either alone. That’s certainly possible. My concern right now is that at age 65, if I’m lucky, I could live another 20-30 years. The watchman is permanent choice and there isn’t any long-term data about how it will perform over time. Why not stay on OAC until I’m older. Perhaps better treatments will come along. There probably is no answer, like most things in medicine.
Re: To watchman or not August 21, 2022 11:26PM |
Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 33 |
Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 12:44AM |
Registered: 5 years ago Posts: 746 |
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jasams
You do make a good point about needing to spend time off the anticoagulant for medical procedures. I think the percentage risk for a few days would be incredibly low, although not zero. It’s not zero with the watchman either.
Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 03:10AM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 03:17AM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 09:38AM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 01:14PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 02:42PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 22, 2022 08:03PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 12:03AM |
Registered: 5 years ago Posts: 746 |
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Carey
Isolating the LAA doesn't mean making burns in the LAA itself just as a PVI doesn't mean making burns in the pulmonary veins themselves. It means making burns around those structures, creating a fence that blocks errant signals from coming out of them.
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 01:11AM |
Admin Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 5,386 |
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Daisy
So indulge me while I ask a basic question: If you get a Watchman without having your LAA isolated, wouldn't the Watchman itself prevent any errant signals from coming out of the LAA, eliminating the need for it to be isolated through ablation?
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 01:30PM |
Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 33 |
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 02:55PM |
Admin Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 5,386 |
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jasams
I don’t think you can suspend all anticoagulants permanently or the company would be pushing for approval of that instead of merely switching the initial 6 weeks from warfarin and aspirin to a dual antiplatelet.
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 04:12PM |
Registered: 5 years ago Posts: 199 |
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 04:31PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 05:28PM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 810 |
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Pixie
This is such a great group. I am sure I will embarrass myself with this question, but here it goes! I just bought a Philips Sonicare toothbrush. I am reading the instructions and it says, “ if you have a pacemaker or other implanted device, contact your physician or the device manufacturer prior to use”. So, here I am taking everything literally. How does a watchman, which is implanted, relate to this?
Please don’t laugh at this one……..
By the way, I probably should have posted this as a new topic. Hope it does not get lost in this string.
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 05:47PM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 12 |
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 05:49PM |
Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 12 |
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 09:25PM |
Registered: 8 years ago Posts: 68 |
Quote
jasams
I don’t think you can suspend all anticoagulants permanently or the company would be pushing for approval of that instead of merely switching the initial 6 weeks from warfarin and aspirin to a dual antiplatelet.
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 10:03PM |
Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 33 |
vRe: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 10:13PM |
Registered: 5 years ago Posts: 199 |
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gloaming
You really ought to consider posting this separately in a new thread. Yes, it's relevant, especially to you, but it is also informative for onlookers who may have the same concerns. It's an education forum after all, where we share experiences and try to help others to make sense of what they're about to experience or what they're currently experiencing.
However, the watchman is an inert metal cage not very dissimilar to cervical protection diaphragm. It gets placed in the left atrial appendage and is left there. The reason we take anticoagulants is chiefly because of the risk of thrombosis in the LAA. The Watchman device is hoped, with accumulated empirical evidence, to be able to obviate
Thank you for your reply. I will try to post this as a new topic.
This is such a great group. I am sure I will embarrass myself with this question, but here it goes! I just bought a Philips Sonicare toothbrush. I am reading the instructions and it says, “ if you have a pacemaker or other implanted device, contact your physician or the device manufacturer prior to use”. So, here I am taking everything literally. How does a watchman, which is implanted, relate to this?
Please don’t laugh at this one……..
By the way, I probably should have posted this as a new topic. Hope it does not get lost in this string.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2022 10:23PM by Pixie.
Re: To watchman or not August 23, 2022 10:38PM |
Admin Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 5,386 |
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Cookie24
Carey,
Please explain why short-term aspirin is required.
Re: To watchman or not August 25, 2022 05:23PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 25, 2022 08:13PM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 26, 2022 01:12AM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 26, 2022 04:28AM |
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Re: To watchman or not August 30, 2022 03:57PM |
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